Solid Food
Hebrews 5:7–14 (NIV)
7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10 and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. 11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
A High Priest Who Cried
Chapter 4 ended with an invitation to come to the throne of grace with confidence. Chapter 5 explains why we can. A high priest has to be chosen from among people, and he has to be able to deal gently with those who are weak. So the writer shows us that Jesus qualifies.
He does it by taking us to a very specific part of Jesus’ life.
“he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears”
Most readers think of Gethsemane here. Jesus knew what was coming. He fell to the ground and asked the Father to take the cup away. This is not a calm, composed prayer. The writer uses the words “cries” and “tears.”
That matters for how we pray. Some of us think real faith should sound steady and tidy, and that crying out to God means our trust is failing. But the Son of God prayed this way. Loud, desperate prayer is not the opposite of faith. It can be what faith sounds like on the worst night.
Heard, and Still He Died
“to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission”
This line is strange when you first read it. Jesus prayed to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard. Yet he went to the cross the next day.
So how was he heard?
Hebrews does not explain it fully here, but the rest of the story does. God did not keep him from death. God brought him through death and raised him on the third day. The answer to the prayer was real. It simply did not come in the form of avoiding the cross.
Notice also the words “reverent submission.” In the garden, Jesus asked honestly, and then he said, “yet not as I will, but as you will.” Both parts belong together. He told the Father exactly what he wanted, and he left the outcome with the Father.
We can pray the same way. We do not have to pretend we want something we do not want. We can say it plainly, and then we can place it in his hands. And when God’s answer does not look like what we asked for, this verse is a reason not to conclude that we were ignored.
Learned Through Suffering
“Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered”
This verse needs care. It does not mean Jesus was ever disobedient and had to be corrected. The writer already told us in chapter 4 that he did not sin.
It means that he obeyed the Father as a real human being, in real situations, and each one cost him something. Being willing to obey is one thing. Actually obeying when it means pain is another. Jesus walked that road all the way to the end, so he knows it from the inside.
“Once made perfect” works the same way. It does not mean he was flawed before. It means he was made complete for the job of being our high priest, having gone through everything that job required.
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There is a quiet comfort here too. If even the Son learned obedience through what he suffered, then our hard seasons are not necessarily a sign that something has gone wrong. God can use them to teach what easy days cannot.
You No Longer Try
Then the writer stops himself. He wants to say more about Jesus as a priest like Melchizedek, but he has a problem.
“it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand”
Notice that he does not say the subject is too hard for them. He says they have stopped trying. The Greek word behind this carries the idea of being sluggish or dull. Their ears had grown slow.
This is the same drift we saw in chapter 3. Nobody decided to stop growing. They had just heard the basics for years, felt they knew them, and stopped leaning in.
That can happen to any of us. We can attend church for a long time and read familiar passages with our minds already somewhere else. Nothing looks wrong from the outside, but we are no longer really listening.
Milk and Solid Food
“though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again”
“By this time.” They had been believers long enough that they should have been helping others. Instead, they needed the first lessons repeated.
There is nothing wrong with milk for an infant. Every believer starts there, and new Christians should not be ashamed of it. The problem is a grown person who is still on it. Years have passed, but growth has not.
It is also worth saying that the elementary truths never stop being true, and we never move past needing the gospel. Going deeper does not mean leaving Jesus behind. In the very next chapters, the “solid food” the writer serves is more about Jesus: who he is as our priest, and what his sacrifice did.
Trained by Constant Use
“But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil”
This is the verse I want to stay with, because of how the writer defines maturity. We might expect it to mean knowing a lot, or having been a Christian for many years. He says something more practical.
The mature are people who can tell good from evil in real life, and they got that way by “constant use.” The word “trained” comes from the world of athletic exercise. Nobody becomes fit by reading about running. The ability grows by doing it, again and again.
So the Bible is not only something to understand. It is something to use. We read about forgiveness, and then we have to forgive someone this week. We read about honesty, and then we are in a meeting where a small lie would make things easier. Each time we act on what we know, our judgment gets a little sharper.
Many choices in life are not clearly labelled. A lot of the time, the hard part is noticing what is going on, or seeing that something which looks fine is slowly pulling us away from God. That kind of sight only comes with practice.
Walk On
This passage holds together a Saviour who cried out in prayer and a warning to people who have stopped trying. The first is what makes the second possible. We have a high priest who knows what obedience costs, so we can go to him for help to obey.
So here are two questions to carry today.
First, is there a prayer you have been keeping polite? He knows what it is to pray with cries and tears. You can tell him what you actually want, and then leave it in his hands.
Second, where have you stopped trying to understand? Think of the last thing you read in Scripture that you actually acted on. If it has been a while, pick one small thing from today’s passage, and put it to use before the day ends.
All glory to God — forever and ever. Amen. 🤍
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